Former UFC 161 headliner Eddie Wineland hoping for best case in Barao recovery

WINNIPEG – Eddie Wineland‘s new mustache should’ve been in full effect this week, on display for Canada – and the world – to see.

Instead, he’s at home, on his stomach on a tattoo table for two straight days, getting his back inked.

But the newly handlebar mustachioed bantamweight wants it known he isn’t going anywhere. And when UFC interim champion Renan Barao (30-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) is able to return, Wineland (20-8-1 MMA, 2-2 UFC) wants the title shot he was supposed to have on Saturday at UFC 161.

UFC 161 takes place at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and Wineland was set to headline the pay-per-view card in an interim title bout against Barao – until a Barao foot injury knocked him off the show this past month. Instead, former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans takes the lead against ex-PRIDE titleholder Dan Henderson.

“It just sucked a lot (hearing about the injury),” Wineland told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I finally get my big shot, and he has an unfortunate injury. I understand injuries happen, and now we just have to hope for a speedy recovery – then we can have our day. I wish him the best in his recovery.”

That, of course, is the diplomatic, politically correct thing to say. Not that Wineland, the first 135-pound champ in WEC history back in 2006, is prone to spouting off at the mouth, anyway.

But the reality is, the Northwest Indiana-based Wineland, who still keeps a full-time job as a firefighter, knows there’s a chance Barao’s injury could blow up in his face.

It certainly has happened before. Fans and fighters alike know the bummer scenarios that could occur, and through circumstance they all end in the guy who was supposed to get a crack at the belt not getting a shot anymore. Sometimes he goes on to get one after a long delay (see: Rashad Evans), and sometimes he winds up not even in the company anymore (see: Josh Grispi).

In Wineland’s case, right now, he’s in wait-and-see mode. Bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz remains sidelined after a pair of knee surgeries. When October rolls around, it’ll be two years since his most recent fight. Enter Barao, of course, as interim champ – who now is injured, as well, though certainly with a quicker time table for return than Cruz’s still-unknown final recovery time.

But Wineland’s fear is that Cruz finally can return – right about the same time Barao can return. And then Wineland is left at the proverbial altar.

“Worst case would be that they come back at the same time,” he said. “Then they have to fight to unify the belt. If that’s the case, then I guess I’ll have to fight just to justify my spot. It’s a hurry-up-and-wait kind of thing I guess.”

Wineland got his shot at Barao after back-to-back wins over Scott Jorgensen and Brad Pickett in 2012. He knocked Jorgensen ice cold in sweltering Florida just about a year ago, becoming the first fighter to ever put the former title challenger’s lights out.

And against Pickett, a personal favorite of UFC boss Dana White, he took a split decision in December at UFC 155 – though for all intents and purposes, where that split came from, not many people understand. Wineland had a pair of 30-27 scores in the fight, and most MMA media scoring the bout gave it to him by the same. One judge had it 29-28 for Pickett, but Wineland’s hand was raised, which was all that really mattered.

And those wins, though just two in a row after consecutive quality losses to Urijah Faber and Joseph Benavidez in 2011, were enough to get Wineland his chance. Anyone who wants to question if he should’ve been there in the first place, he believes, needs only look at the Jorgensen and Pickett fights.

“My last two fights, I think, speak loud enough,” he said. “Both were top five guys at the time. One had never been knocked out before, which I did. The other, I won fairly handily.”

Of course, there’s another scenario, and that’s that Wineland doesn’t have to go through Barao at all – and he just gets his shot right at Cruz, even if it has to come after another fight and win.

The important thing is, Wineland knows what he wants. He doesn’t want to be laying around for 14 hours over back-to-back days increasing his tattoo portfolio, though his admitted ink addiction would’ve led to that eventually, anyway.

What he wants is a shot at the title he was the first to hold, and the one he believes he’ll hold again. He won’t feel like watching UFC 161 on Saturday seeing Evans and Henderson throw down in the big-ticket spot that was meant for him and Barao. He will, anyway, begrudgingly, because right now he’s working off of confidence that this all will work its way out eventually.

“Dom is the champ, and I want his belt,” he said. “Renan was a step in getting to that belt. At this point, it’s just something where we have to hope for the best and take it as it comes, I guess.

“I’ll watch. It will be a hard pill to swallow, but sooner or later I’ll get my shot – and my belt back.”

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